Around April 2023 I made a decision to collect models of the HO Southern Crescent Limited passenger trains. I decided to do this because I already owned several HO Southern Steam locomotives as well as the entire Norfolk Southern Heritage fleet of locomotives. Since I live and grew-up in North Carolina, I thought it was best to include some of the original Southern Railway trains in my collection. It took me a month, but starting April 10th, 2023, I obtained my first set of HO scale Rivarossi Heavyweight Passenger Cars. I drove to Hickory, NC, about an hour from my place, to obtain them from another collector and seller who missed the Hickory Train Show that was held just a few days before I bought the cars from him.
Although I bought from the seller what we both thought were authentic A & B Rivarossi 4-piece passenger car sets, it turned out that the B set didn’t have the cars in it that it was supposed to have in it. So, I had to look around and finally found a person on eBay who had a correctly outfitted B set. Initially, I only wanted 8 cars, but because I had to purchase a 3rd set to get a tail end observation car, one of the cars I definitely set-out to collect, I ended up with 12 Rivarossi HO Southern Crescent Limited passenger cars. This worked out very well because it allowed me to take one of the duplicated baggage cars and turn that car into a transition car. The Rivarossi cars have Hornhook couplers on them by default so I replaced one of the couplers on the 1st set A baggage car with a McHenry Knuckle Coupler. This makes it possible for me to easily switch the locomotive(s) that I wish to use to pull the consist.
Today, January 4th, 2026, I filtered my cataloged list of trains in my collection and discovered that I have 102 trains identified as HO scale SOUTHERN Railway trains. This does not include any of the items identified as Norfolk Southern roadnamed items nor does it address any of the other railway companies consumed by Norfolk Southern or Southern Railway. I then applied additional filters to the list so that only Passenger Cars, Steam Engines, and Diesel Locomotives appeared. That shortened the list to 41 items. As I write this blog today, I don’t think I will be including all 41 items, but perhaps eventually, I will at least provide the filtered list, if I receive any feedback from viewers wanting to know the items in the list. For now, this page contains some photos and videos that have been taken of some of my HO Southern Crescent Limited Passenger Trains.
I am a member of the Metrolina Model Railroaders club. And the club has had a presence each year at the Southern Christmas Show for a very long time. I am approaching my 10th year (in 2026) as a member. I ran my HO Southern Crescent Limited Passenger Trains for the first time in 2023 at the Southern Christmas Show. So, the following 3 videos include some scenes from the Southern Christmas Show that include my Southern Crescent Limited Passenger cars. Sometimes trains don’t always run great for many different reasons. So, you may notice that the number of passenger cars pulled during the 2023 Christmas Show dwindled or changed in the different videos. This is typically because something occurred that wasn’t allowing the trains to run well enough to keep all the trains on the tracks, so at times, the long consist was diminished by a few cars until a reliable, stable set of trains would run with the least amount of
Henry’s HO Southern Crescent Limited Passenger Train crossing the French Broad & Catawba layout at the Metrolina Model Railroader club’s 2023 Southern Christmas Show booth. Features 2 Steam Locomotives pulling 12 passenger cars.
A walk around the French Broad & Catawba layout at the Metrolina Model Railroader club’s 2023 Southern Christmas Show booth following Henry’s HO Southern Crescent Limited Passenger Train. Features 1 Steam Locomotives pulling 12 passenger cars
To make this page, For this video, I finally found some clips from the 2023 and 2024 Southern Christmas Show events where I pulled my Southern Crescent Limited cars around the Metrolina Model Railroader’s club display during those events.
In 2025, I took this train set and a new Bachmann Southern locomotive #2910 with me to the 2025 Southern Christmas Show, but I didn’t record any running of the set because I didn’t get to operate the #2910 the day I was there. A fellow club member may have caught a small glimpse of the set running and that video might be posted in the club’s Facebook page. If so, I will attempt to acquire a copy of it and when I publish these videos to my ShowMyHobby.com website, I will do my best to include all the videos that I have or can find of me running my trains in this collection.
For now, I am not going to upload photos of all the locomotives I have or can use to pull this set. It will take you some time to review the photos in this album and it will take you nearly 2 hours or more to watch all the videos from beginning to end. One of the most recent videos is 57 minutes by itself. That video shows the most recent gifted double set of Walther’s EMD E8-A’s pulling 11 of the 12 Southern Crescent Limited passenger train cars on my Libraryville layout. So, you may wish to start with that video. The other impressive video is one that hasn’t been found yet, and it includes me pulling this set (I think) with a Smoke Equipped MTH Steam Locomotive that really puffs out the smoke very well.
I hope you enjoy this collection of trains. Thanks for watching.
photos
New HO scale Walthers Proto EMD E8 A-A Southern locomotives SHOULD be able to navigate 18″ radius curves, but right out of the box, they do not do so.
photos
I reexamined the HO scale Walthers Proto EMD E8-A’s and discovered what I believe was causing them to derail on my 18″ radius curves. I clipped the tops off what I think are the sanding pipes that appear on the Engineer’s side of the locomotive as wheel hubcaps and I remove 1 completely and it solves the problem.
photos
This is a video that is nearly 57 minutes long and it contains successful running of the 2 New HO scale Walthers EMD E8-A’s pulling 11 Rivarossi Heavyweight Southern Crescent Limited passenger train cars around my Libraryville layout.
This page is currently under construction and will be finished soon.
